Watsonville clinic offers low-cost spay and neuter services

WATSONVILLE -- Nearly 6,000 dogs and cats end up at Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter each year, and close to half come from Watsonville and the surrounding area.

Advocates aim to reduce the numbers of homeless animals with a new low-cost spay and neuter clinic at 150A Pennsylvania Drive. The clinic, where an open house was held Sunday, is a partnership between the county agency's Planned PetHood program and the nonprofit, Friends of Watsonville Animal Shelter.

The idea, Henderson said, is to prevent unwanted litters of puppies and kittens that end up on the streets or in the shelter.

The nonprofit spent $90,000 to establish the clinic in a vacant former veterinary hospital. Shabby offices were renovated, and new equipment installed.

The county Animal Shelter provides veterinarians for the surgeries.

The clinic, which operates on Wednesdays, opened in the fall, and demand has been high, Henderson said. Appointments are booked out a month, and advocates are working to add more days to the schedule.

The cost for spaying or neutering a dog is $100, though the price drops to $50 for pit bulls and Chihuahuas due to their prevalence in shelters.

Cats can be spayed or neutered, micro-chipped and vaccinated for $5 thanks to an $86,000 grant from PetSmart Charities.

The county also provides spay and neuter services at its Santa Cruz shelter, but its Watsonville facility on Airport Boulevard was too small for a clinic and funding wasn't available to create one elsewhere in South County, said shelter manager Ben Winkleblack. But the need was there.

"Somebody just had to build it," Winkleblack said.

The nonprofit was able to take on the project due to bequests from Beverly Pini and Ruth Neilson. The two women left a total of about $600,000 to the animal advocacy group with the condition that the principal couldn't be touched for 10 years, a provision that recently expired, according to treasurer Kim Austin, a retired Watsonville deputy police chief.